Châteauneuf-du-Pape is back

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From 2005, for at least 10 years, I went to Châteauneuf-du-Pape towards the end of the year to taste the latest vintage in bottle. I would sit in the headquarters of the local growers organisation and, in between tasting literally hundreds of masked bottles, gaze out at Provence’s miraculous November sunshine on the golden vines with the white cone of Mont Ventoux in the distance.

The weather was the best bit, a welcome change from cold, grey London. The worst bit was the extraordinary lack of good hotels and restaurants in Châteauneuf, a pretty village responsible for, and sharing a name with, one of the most famous wines in the world. Rather than getting behind the steering wheel with a bloodstream full of 15 per cent wine, I stayed at the town’s one extremely modest hotel and ate badly.

I was invited back to Châteauneuf last month to celebrate the centenary of the formation of the Syndicat des Vignerons de Châteauneuf and was completely amazed by the transformation of the place. In the first half of the past century, Châteauneuf was on the RN7, the main road from Paris to Italy that was then known as the Route des Vacances. With its wine connections, it was a perfect stopping point for hungry travellers, not least once Germaine Vion (who had cooked for the French president) established herself in a hotel-restaurant right on the main road by the village’s famous fountain. She made La Mère Germaine even more famous.

After the demise of the patronne, however, the establishment was thoroughly neglected. Then came the Strassers.

Arnaud Strasser is the Belgian-born co-vice chairman of the board of the company that owns Casino supermarkets. Isabelle Strasser is a Parisienne French teacher who, like her husband, is mad about wine and food. After years of corporate life, six of them in São Paulo, they were looking for a change. They’d always loved the light in Provence, and favoured the Mediterranean over the Atlantic where Isabelle’s childhood holidays were spent. So in 2016 they bought a wine estate in the southern Luberon, Domaine de la Pousterle, which Arnaud describes as “a beautiful mas [country house] which seemed like a refuge from Casino and Brazil”.

But for all Arnaud’s commercial experience, they found selling Luberon wines an uphill struggle and decided what they needed was an estate with a much more famous appellation, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, to put Vignobles Strasser Radziwill on the map. Eventually, in 2019, they managed to acquire the estate that used to be known as Domaine La Millière near La Vieille Julienne in the sandy north of the appellation, the sector known as Cabrières. They were attracted by the old, relatively late-ripening vines there and the fact that they were already certified organic. They renamed it Dom Le Prieuré des Papes. On the day we visited last month they were expecting a group of visitors for a tasting later, and clearly have their sights set on oenotourism.

Le Prieuré des Papes will also absorb the produce of Les Girard du Boucou. This second Châteauneuf estate, situated in a rather warmer part of the appellation, was bought at the end of last year.

This is far from the only expansion of their southern Rhône empire. In 2020 they bought Dom du Moulin Blanc in Tavel, the appellation that used to produce heavy rosé but now makes some really fine, distinctive pink wine that can age well and is a worthy partner for food, not just for poolside sipping. And in 2021 they added the 60-hectare Domaine de Coyeux in Beaumes de Venise in the hills to the north of Châteauneuf. So their viticultural holdings are already very substantial, but it is what they have done in the village of Châteauneuf itself that is truly distinctive.

In early 2020, just before lockdown, they embarked on an adventure that they admit was “un peu fou”. They decided to buy the old Mère Germaine’s rundown hotel and restaurant, which has a panoramic view over the Rhône valley. They have now completely rebuilt it — not easy, given the thick stone walls, masses of steps and very limited road access. In its first year, thanks to Belgian chef Christophe Hardiquest, it acquired that most precious of assets for any budding restaurateur in France, a Michelin star. On the day we lunched there with the Strassers and their chief winemaker Christian Agut, we were surrounded by tourists from Asia and America. Châteauneuf is once more on the map.

And they haven’t stopped there. They have redone the hotel where I used to stay so that it’s now full of rather beautiful artefacts and giant beds with linens whose thread counts can only be dreamt of. They have also opened a shop selling local food and wine and a large, more casual rotisserie, Le Comptoir de la Mère Germaine, on a new piazza that also houses a wine bar and café. Claude Avril, brother of Paul Vincent Avril who makes the exceptional Châteauneuf Clos des Papes, must take some credit for the renovation of Châteauneuf. He has been mayor since 2020 and, not surprisingly, has welcomed the Strassers.

Being a Belgian and a Parisienne, they were well aware that they came into the village as outsiders and that it may take time to be accepted. But Arnaud is already extremely proud of having been made a member of the local ceremonial wine brotherhood, the Echansonnerie des Papes. At the Grand Conseil of the Echansonnerie in the Palais des Papes in Avignon last month, listening to three hours of speeches by his fellow wine producers, he was wearing his long, red velvet robe with pride as Isabelle looked on. It’s all very different from life in the boardroom.

Tasting notes, scores and suggested drink dates on Purple Pages of JancisRobinson.com. Some international stockists on Wine-searcher.com

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